Big Ben accused of sexual assault

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

So if this were Brady would ESPN have made an ESPN 3 by now and be giving it 24/7 coverage? I think so.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

TheGodInAGreyHoodie said:

I got an advance copy of the transcript.....


"I did not have sex with that women, Ms McNaulty."

Click to expand...

That's almost exactly what he said.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

jovifan said:

Last year Tom Brady played in this tourney but to her sadness didn't return this year.

Click to expand...

He's probably worried about his knee... but I would have been disappointed too.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

MoLewisrocks said:

No offense officer, but I get a kick out of those who start out saying too many posts to read but...

Florio had a pretty good summation of what happens in a civil case, as well as why one was filed including a year after the fact in this case, in a link I posted earlier. In that he also said that discovery is the point at which most celebrities settle because for them it's the first time they are not in control of a situation, they can't make the questions stop. Ditto corporations. She is suing not just Ben but some Harrah's employees for harassing her into not persuing charges and for then trying to tamper with evidence and defame her in the process. And I believe Ben has actually already admitted to some sort of consentual relationship, as did Kobe... But you wouldn't necessarily know any of that since couldn't be bothered to read the thread (or apparently the reports) before weighing in...

FWIW the preponderence of evidence and 9 vs. 12 jurors weights heavily in the plantiff's favor in civil cases. As will the jurisdiction...

Click to expand...

Ok where to start.

I just got done watch Ben's press confrence and I watched Florio's video piece on this story. Wrong on two counts so far, sounds to me Ben is going to fight this and not like you pointed to in Florio's piece where he most likely will, "settle". Second Florio stated in his video clip that he would advise Ben not to say anything nor have a press confrence, Well I just got done watching it so wrong there as well.

If your not getting it so far, Florio is on the outside looking in like the rest of us are. Has no clue what is going to happen nor should he.

There is a HUGE difference between a $5,000 lawyer and a $15,000 lawyer.

I am going to help you out my friend on this. Two example just for you!

Incident happened where I work, 4 officers involved. News paper writes many stories on it. Every story they wrote, they put names of 2 officers who don't even work with us. We have no one by those two names they printed.

Second example, we had training one day. Officer who was teaching the class puts up and officer's report on a power point. Next to the officer's report he puts up a news paper story that was written off the officer's report.

NIGHT and DAY!!! Twisted and there were things added and left out. Who ever read that story in the paper has no clue of what really happened.

I go by what is said in court and what is put on the record.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

Tunescribe said:

That's almost exactly what he said.

Click to expand...

That is not close to what he said.

Having just watched his press conference I am full confident he is guilty.

He called the allegations false and reckless.

What he did not do was either state that it was consenual sex nor state that they did not have sex at all. His failure to state either of those leads me to believe his attys want to leave their options open.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

PatsSox363804 said:

So if this were Brady would ESPN have made an ESPN 3 by now and be giving it 24/7 coverage? I think so.

Click to expand...

My guess is by today ESPN would have already started filming the based off reality sports movie entitled "Behind the Glory: Tom Brady the Cold Blooded Rapist" starring Ron Jeremy as Brady.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

TheGodInAGreyHoodie said:

That is not close to what he said.

Having just watched his press conference I am full confident he is guilty.

He called the allegations false and reckless.

What he did not do was either state that it was consenual sex nor state that they did not have sex at all. His failure to state either of those leads me to believe his attys want to leave their options open.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen it yet, but I noted the same things you did, he neither denied or confirmed contact with his accuser. And from the photo on the PPGazette site, he looks rough, like he's coming off a 3 day bender...

Steelers' Roethlisberger denies sexual assault of woman

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

PATS68 said:

Ok where to start.

I just got done watch Ben's press confrence and I watched Florio's video piece on this story. Wrong on two counts so far, sounds to me Ben is going to fight this and not like you pointed to in Florio's piece where he most likely will, "settle". Second Florio stated in his video clip that he would advise Ben not to say anything nor have a press confrence, Well I just got done watching it so wrong there as well.

If your not getting it so far, Florio is on the outside looking in like the rest of us are. Has no clue what is going to happen nor should he.

There is a HUGE difference between a $5,000 lawyer and a $15,000 lawyer.

I am going to help you out my friend on this. Two example just for you!

Incident happened where I work, 4 officers involved. News paper writes many stories on it. Every story they wrote, they put names of 2 officers who don't even work with us. We have no one by those two names they printed.

Second example, we had training one day. Officer who was teaching the class puts up and officer's report on a power point. Next to the officer's report he puts up a news paper story that was written off the officer's report.

NIGHT and DAY!!! Twisted and there were things added and left out. Who ever read that story in the paper has no clue of what really happened.

I go by what is said in court and what is put on the record.

Click to expand...

They are always going to fight it at the outset. Florio's advice from a legal standpoint was solid, say NOTHING. Unfortunately for Ben, though he said little, his handlers apparently felt he had to say something. Hope for his sake no one else comes out now to challenge his contention that he would never force himself on a woman...

I have no idea which kind of lawyer Florio is, but her lawyer is the $15,000 variety as you say while Cornwall is also a player agent who just finished an unsuccessful run for president of the NFLPA...

I have no idea what relevance your stories from the field have in this context...

Her papers have been filed with a court so are the only things to have been put on record to date. That is all we have to go. Along with what little Ben and his attorney have said.

And what Florio said was that in cases like these high profile players egos get a wake up call during discovery which is why that is often when cases are suddenly settled. They can't control the process and once they realize that the idea of making it go away becomes preferable. We won't know if that happens in this case for a while yet. But it often has in the past. In civil cases...it's the criminal equivalent of a plea bargain to a lesser charge, in this case compensation in exchange for it "officially" goes away before it opens up even more controversy.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

MoLewisrocks said:

And what Florio said was that in cases like these high profile players egos get a wake up call during discovery which is why that is often when cases are suddenly settled.

Click to expand...

On the one hand, its a little unnerving how easily this could happen to an athlete, and how accusations can be made without any basis in fact (not that that's the case here). On the other hand, the truth generally wins out over time. Just look at how quickly the 07 Moss domestic dispute case was resolved b/c it was so obviously bogus. On the flip side, look how dragged out the Kobe case was b/c there was something there - whether he raped her or not, who knows, but he certainly had sex with her, and that was enough to keep things going.

I imagine the Roethlisberger case will play out in the same manner. At the very least, he's had an affair with her, and his pride/ego will prevent him from acknowledging this, so he'll aggressively fight this knowing it hurts his image.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

Just to reemphasize, settling out of court is not an admission of guilt. I don't get why most people seem to be assuming that A = B in that way. If Ben were to settle, it could mean a lot of things. Could just as easily mean that he wants to get the whole matter out of the way or that he doesn't want other skeletons in the closet dug up during discovery.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

So far, we have a suit filed. That's all. No discovery has taken place, no facts have been established. Anyone who says they believe one party or the other at this point is engaging in idle speculation.

As the discovery process proceeds, both sides will assess where they stand. Any eventual settlement will be based on this ongoing assessment of the facts as they emerge.

Mr. Rothlisberger is vulnerable in a couple of ways. First, if there is security video of the room that shows the plaintiff leaving in obvious distress, look out. (Same for the plaintiff if video were to show her leaving cool, calm and collected.) Second, if another person were to make allegations of physical or sexual abuse, the accusations leveled in this case might take on greater credibility.

The plaintiff faces an uphill battle. Who will substantiate her story? Absent any physical evidence, her lawyers will have to assemble enough facts to make a jury believe that she is more than likely telling the truth.

All any of us can hope for is that the truth is revealed and that either the defendant or the plaintiff bear the appropriate consequences.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

PATS68 said:

Ok where to start.

I just got done watch Ben's press confrence and I watched Florio's video piece on this story. Wrong on two counts so far, sounds to me Ben is going to fight this and not like you pointed to in Florio's piece where he most likely will, "settle". Second Florio stated in his video clip that he would advise Ben not to say anything nor have a press confrence, Well I just got done watching it so wrong there as well.

If your not getting it so far, Florio is on the outside looking in like the rest of us are. Has no clue what is going to happen nor should he.

There is a HUGE difference between a $5,000 lawyer and a $15,000 lawyer.

I am going to help you out my friend on this. Two example just for you!

Incident happened where I work, 4 officers involved. News paper writes many stories on it. Every story they wrote, they put names of 2 officers who don't even work with us. We have no one by those two names they printed.

Second example, we had training one day. Officer who was teaching the class puts up and officer's report on a power point. Next to the officer's report he puts up a news paper story that was written off the officer's report.

NIGHT and DAY!!! Twisted and there were things added and left out. Who ever read that story in the paper has no clue of what really happened.

I go by what is said in court and what is put on the record.

Click to expand...

I still think you're missing the main point. It was tom Curran who interviewed her lawyer, and her lawyer was the one, citing law, that said they had to serve Ben R. in Nevada and that they had to wait a year because of that reason. Much of the story was simply about certain facts which neither side is disputing but which were omitted in the initial story and covered only later by Florio and Curran, and that's why the story developed over this thread.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

I'm not sure how she wins this.

She may be telling the truth, but it's he said/ she said.

Does she have anything contemporaneous? Even if she did, she could have been making it up at the time.

Don't see how she does anything but get herself dragged through the mud, which is sad if she is telling the truth.

You need 9 out of 12 jurors to agree with your side with a "preponderance of the evidence" standard?

Even if he slept with her, what evidence is there at all of force?

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

Zeus said:

So far, we have a suit filed. That's all. No discovery has taken place, no facts have been established. Anyone who says they believe one party or the other at this point is engaging in idle speculation.

As the discovery process proceeds, both sides will assess where they stand. Any eventual settlement will be based on this ongoing assessment of the facts as they emerge.

Mr. Rothlisberger is vulnerable in a couple of ways. First, if there is security video of the room that shows the plaintiff leaving in obvious distress, look out. (Same for the plaintiff if video were to show her leaving cool, calm and collected.) Second, if another person were to make allegations of physical or sexual abuse, the accusations leveled in this case might take on greater credibility.

The plaintiff faces an uphill battle. Who will substantiate her story? Absent any physical evidence, her lawyers will have to assemble enough facts to make a jury believe that she is more than likely telling the truth.

All any of us can hope for is that the truth is revealed and that either the defendant or the plaintiff bear the appropriate consequences.

Click to expand...

Nice summation.

The only thing I would add is when the Moss accusations surfaced it quickly became evident that while something transpired between them it hardly rose to the level of significance many lept to. One reason was the early connection of the local female reporter to both the plaintiff and her inexperienced attorney.

As Florio says, in this case her lawyer is a well respected, 30 year veteran attorney (and former prosecutor) who would not likely take on a case like this unless he felt there was a decent expectation of either a settlement or the possibitity of prevailing in a jury trial. 'Cause he don't get paid otherwise and his longstanding professional reputation is also on the line. The accusations about her mental status are also included in her filings, and form part of the basis of it, therefore it's not like he was going to be blindsided by claims about her mental status and he's likely reseached that situation pretty thoroughly.

Certainly will be a distraction though. In fact it's already distracted the media to the point Brett has been forced to leak his renewed concern about signing the contract he's already negotiated with the Vikings just to get some attention...

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

TheGodInAGreyHoodie said:

That is not close to what he said.

Having just watched his press conference I am full confident he is guilty.

He called the allegations false and reckless.

What he did not do was either state that it was consenual sex nor state that they did not have sex at all. His failure to state either of those leads me to believe his attys want to leave their options open.

Click to expand...

What would he have had to lose by saying it was consensual if in fact he raped her? I thought somewhere else he did say it was consensual.

His statement that it was "false and reckless" means he's denying it.

How would you infer from a denial that he is indeed guilty becuase he didn't qualify the denial further?

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

klinefan said:

What would he have had to lose by saying it was consensual if in fact he raped her? I thought somewhere else he did say it was consensual.

His statement that it was "false and reckless" means he's denying it.

How would you infer from a denial that he is indeed guilty becuase he didn't qualify the denial further?

Click to expand...

The ability at trial to deny that they never had sex at all. If the plaintiff doesn't have proof that they had sex Ben can lie and say they never had sex. If she has evidence they had sex (such as Ben's seamon on her blue dress) his claim has to be it was consenual. He want to leave that option open.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

Lynn Swann is on the board at Harrah's.

Corporate : Investor Relations - Corporate Governance - Board of Directors

Very interesting.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

MoLewisrocks said:

I haven't seen it yet, but I noted the same things you did, he neither denied or confirmed contact with his accuser. And from the photo on the PPGazette site, he looks rough, like he's coming off a 3 day bender...

Steelers' Roethlisberger denies sexual assault of woman

Click to expand...

Nice jowls.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

HSanders said:

Lynn Swann is on the board at Harrah's.

Corporate : Investor Relations - Corporate Governance - Board of Directors

Very interesting.

Click to expand...

I believe the Rooney family has lots of gambling ties. In fact the recent franchise sale from one faction of the family to another was supposed to clean up that little discrepancy with NFL ownership bylaws, although there are some reports it didn't quite do the trick.

Re: OT: Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault

Patjew said:

Nice jowls.

Click to expand...

Ben's looked a little altered ever since his bionic face replacement.
Although mostly that impacts his eyes...which is why I can no longer tell when he's lying...He also looks a little... bloated...